Conversation with Norbert Goffa – co-founder of ILCOIN – About the cryptocurrency market, trends and vision

An interview from Alyona Karpinskaya
Job interview: Norbert Goffa

Q: Right now everyone is talking about the skyrocketing price of Bitcoin. Did you expect Bitcoin to hit its all-time high by the end of 2020?

A: In all honesty, I didn’t. I was expecting it to get stronger by the end of the year, but no one thought it would happen at this rate. We and our team analyze the forecasts about the possible price change of Bitcoin a lot, but this pace was really surprising. For my part, I forego predictions and do not consider the theories that predict a hundred thousand dollar forecast in a relatively short period of time to be realistic. I think it’s not about predicting exact prices, but more about trends. I think growing too fast has its downsides too, just look at the current market.

Since everything is defined by Bitcoin, it is necessary to review the negative effects caused by sharp price increases. Of course, who wouldn’t be happy if their Bitcoin is always worth more? It is of course in everyone’s interest, but at the same time other effects should also be considered, since Bitcoin has an unrestricted dominance in the cryptocurrency market and therefore – a strong Bitcoin can give the other participants the market. The ones who are sure to be very satisfied are the miners as their fees are getting better for the better with this price.

Q: You were referring to altcoins in the previous question. Could you elaborate on how you see market trends?

A: Whenever bitcoin gets stronger, any altcoins that can’t keep up with the pace get weaker compared to bitcoin. Whenever Bitcoin weakens, the altcoins typically lose much more of their value, as they are already lagging behind compared to Bitcoin. If we look at the all-time high price of Ripple or Ethereum as a concrete example, we see that these are very far from the prices previously reached. Bitcoin has already exceeded that price, however, so we can see that everyone has suffered a heavy loss to Bitcoin.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that an altcoin – especially the new ones which are mostly DeFi projects – can’t make a bigger profit than Bitcoin. In my example, I was referring to the veterans who happened to come into the public eye as alternatives to Bitcoin. I could have laughed at these visions years ago. Not only can Bitcoin not be knocked over, it is almost impossible to even get near it. I think this is a good thing and an advantage in the long run as it is unnecessary to find alternatives for the same purpose that we use Bitcoin. It is more important that a project presents solutions where you cannot count on Bitcoin. From this point of view, Ethereum is a prime example as it offers such a solution that Bitcoin is not capable of. Personally, I think fighting Ethereum is more of a challenge for the Altcoins than competing with Bitcoin. Because it’s like challenging dolphins in an ocean swimming competition.

Q: You mentioned Ethereum as the epitome of the cryptocurrency market. How do you think Ethereum 2.0 will affect its price?

A: If I could just answer, I would say that it isn’t a very influencing fact that Ethereum is building such a smart contract network that leverages investors’ ethers. I don’t want to predict anything, but the staking is somewhere near the inflation level. It’s like bank interest, but it’s still not the same. In my opinion, Ethereum’s strategy is not so good in the long run, as these solutions also make Ethereum less valuable. Of course, this is not clearly black or white. There could be a price-increasing effect of Ethereum 2.0, but I see a market that works differently, where we can’t say that an upgrade like this will bring investors one or two profit. There are so many unpredictable factors that these predictions don’t matter other than marketing value.

Let’s say Bitcoin will drop to 20,000 tomorrow. Is it good or bad? Of course, for those who have bought in the past few days, it is very bad. On the contrary, for those who have consciously built up their Bitcoin portfolio for years, it is certainly a good thing, since a good trader makes his money from movements and not just from continuously rising prices. This is exactly why DeFi projects are popular, as they could make a lot of money. Let’s just check the current Year.Finance period.

Q: You referred to DeFi projects as easy ways to win. What is your opinion on how long the DeFi buzz will last and what will be the end?

A: At the moment, attention has been reduced to DeFi projects and everyone is watching Bitcoin. I would add that it is right to be so. What happened to Bitcoin is way beyond 2020 expectations. And that answers your question that DeFi will continue on its chosen path. DeFi has a future, because DeFi stands for the decentralization of the cryptocurrency market. One would think that having a centralized exchange has many advantages as it secures your clients’ money. Yes, and it is also the case that the customer’s money is not paid out. Unfortunately, we have a lot of experience with such cases. Exchanges can disappear with users’ money! Of course one could say that one has to use exchanges with a good reputation. Of course there is a way, but the question is the price. I bet that the success of freshly arrived tokens lies in the fact that at the time of launch one or two TOP exchanges are already supporting the project. If I can conspire a little, I would say that the exchanges also own these projects. If a token is on one of the TOP exchanges, that’s half the story. I would also like to ask – how decentralized is the cryptocurrency market really?

Q: If we think about what you just said, we can assume that creating an ERC20 project is easier and cheaper than building a coin on your own technical innovations. Did you mean to point this out earlier?

A: Yes, that’s exactly what I wanted to point out. You understand it. Of course you can argue about it, but it’s not worth it. The cryptocurrency market prefers the token-based approach to the individual coin-based approach when trading. I don’t mean it’s a wrong approach as from a speculative point of view, one token might be enough for success. If I generate 1 million tokens, which is the maximum of what my project has to offer, I could easily put 250,000 on an exchange for them to start the project. I referred to that in the previous question.

This does not mean that your own coin, based on a unique technology, is not valuable or more valuable than that of token-based projects, the purpose of which is limited to speculative trading. Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages. Because of this, I think exchange trading could be more effective than token-based, but in real world conditions it is nowhere near enough. Because of this, I think that having a unique technology will be more rewarding in the long run.

Q: Let’s talk a little bit about ILCOIN. You created the RIFT log about a year ago. What has happened in the ILCOIN blockchain project since then?

A: We have changed in several ways. Although we won the race to increase the block size, I can say we were the only ones to cross the finish line. We didn’t expect that ourselves. That’s not good, definitely not good, because if you are the only participant in a race, then it is no longer a race. In a word, all of the attention has been directed to block size growth and on-chain based data storage and to DeFi projects. I admit we didn’t expect this, but I think we are not alone with this problem. We have to see where we outperformed and what caused the competition to fail. Why bring out a 2GB block when there was someone who made a 5GB block? You can only give the winner one free promotion at most. At the same time, I think the day will come when the RIFT protocol will be commonplace.

Then add COVID19, which also thwarted our plans. It’s safe to say that 2020 wasn’t our year. At the same time, a lot of good has happened, and these advances will have an impact on the market in 2021. Suffice it to mention our VR game as we have serious plans for the future as Age of ILCOIN: Retribution will be the most important element of the DCB. Additionally, we have plans for ILCOIN to become part of DeFi projects as we believe in the benefits of expanding decentralized exchanges. All in all, a lot is happening in the background and I’m sure it will bring results.

Q: If I get it right, are you saying that the price of ILCOIN is expected to go up in the next year? If we look at this year, your price has fallen sharply. Is there a special reason for this, or did the market just go that way for you?

A: It’s a tough question, and I was hoping you wouldn’t ask it. But of course everyone is concerned with this question. I don’t think there is a project that likes to talk about falling prices. I would add that we are not alone as we are proportionally better positioned than some of the top altcoins. But I don’t want to hide behind others, so the fact is that we have lost a lot this year too. At the same time, I don’t see this as that big of a problem. All cryptocurrencies went through the same process. Bitcoin took two years to find its way back to its former self, and it has even surpassed that. The fact that we’ve lost a lot of our price doesn’t mean we don’t have potential. I think that’s exactly why we have good opportunities for promotion in the future. Of course we need new business partners and reforms are also necessary. We are working on that and I am pleased to say that our prospects are very favorable.

It is natural to ask why our price has gone down. There are several reasons for this that I don’t want to talk about as it is very speculative. It is certain that we generated more enemies than friends with the 5GB block. We ended our collaboration with some of our partners and of course interacting with the exchanges wasn’t always a jaunt. We learned a lot from these cases, and that’s why I talked about reforms. ILCOIN is a project with great potential as we have such a development team behind us that has already proven itself. I am sure that we will emerge victorious from the blockchain technology competition in the long term. I don’t make promises that aren’t down to earth. I have never made factual statements about the price of Bitcoin. And that’s no coincidence, I leave guesswork to others. I am interested in trends and tendencies. This is how I see ICOIN. I don’t mean a specific moment because you can’t draw long-term conclusions from it. I believe in trends, tendencies and innovation. That’s why I represent ILCOIN.

You can find more information about ILCoin at: https://www.ILCoincrypto.com/
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About Alyona Karpinskaya:

Founder of the PR-Blockchain agency, technical writer, journalist and publicist.